Qirkat Rules

The screenshots in this section show the game board displaying wins, verbose prompts, and human controls. Where relevant, some of the screenshots also show valid moves in blue.

Once you're familiar with the game, you can turn off these defaults in the app preferences.

The screenshots also assume you're playing another human, but the rules are the same if you're playing an AI or the AI is playing itself.

This is the initial board setup:

First move

The player with the light pieces (Light) always moves first. Once Light has completed a valid move, the player with the dark pieces (Dark) moves. Gameplay alternates until the game is over.

Regular moves

A regular move is when a player moves to an adjacent free point. On the first move, Light can move any one of four pieces to the center point. For example:

Jumps

Instead of a regular move, a piece can also jump over an opponent's piece to the point beyond it. In the example above, Dark can jump over Light's piece located at the center point:

Jumps are mandatory

Note that jumps are mandatory – if a piece can jump over an opponent's piece, it has to make the jump.

If a player has several possible jumps available, the player can choose which jump to make. Here, for example, Dark can choose between two available jump options:

Multiple jumps

If a player jumps over an opponent's piece and can then jump over another of the opponent's pieces, the player has to continue jumping until no more jumps (with the same piece) are available.

In the example above, once Dark makes the first jump:

Dark can (and must) continue jumping over Light's piece at the center point:

Restrictions on regular moves

There are two restrictions on regular moves:

• Only forward and sideways moves are allowed. Backward moves (toward the player's own side of the board) are not allowed.
• A piece cannot return to a point it moved from on a previous move.

These restrictions ensure that there's always forward momentum in the game and that no "infinite loops" occur.

Here, for example, Light cannot move its remaining piece back into the corner, because that's where the piece moved from on a previous move:

Note that these restrictions do not apply to jumps: A player's piece can jump over an opponent's piece in any direction, even backward.

End of game

If one of the players is no longer able to move, that player loses and the other player wins.

If both players are unable to move, the game ends in a draw.